


Ulysses

by Gleaming_Spires (cuppaktea)



Series: Cuppaktea's THB prompt challenge [1]
Category: History Boys (2006), History Boys - All Media Types, History Boys - Bennett
Genre: Dakin is Fiona's plaything, Dakin is a shameless flirt, F/M, Fiona is more than just a secretary, M/M, possibly a warning for attempted infidelity, reading challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:55:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22056631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuppaktea/pseuds/Gleaming_Spires
Summary: She thrusts the book into his chest. "A challenge for you”“Fuck off!”Fiona raises perfect eyebrows. “Scared?”
Relationships: Stuart Dakin/Fiona, Stuart Dakin/Tom Irwin, basically what's in canon, one sided Dakin/Posner
Series: Cuppaktea's THB prompt challenge [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587535
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	Ulysses

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt from the lovely ToodleOfDeeth and I've loved every minute of this so thank you <3

Dakin likes coming to Fiona’s after school. Her housemates leave them in peace, unlike at home - there’s no being called a lazy vain little bugger and being made to fetch logs in, for example, and nobody yelling every five minutes to ask if he wants a cup of tea, and anyway he likes staying in a more adult environment. He’s rather outgrown being watched over by his parents.

Of course, there are other advantages. These days, admittedly, he doesn’t have much time for those, having to work on essays instead, but it’s a calmer environment to work in than his own home.

Fiona only has so much patience for her room being used as a library, however, and on the third time she tells him to put down his pen or go home she’s beginning to sound like she means it, so he packs his work away and stretches out the kinks in his back.

Standing, he runs his hands along the spines of the books beside the bed and plucks one of them off the shelf. There’s a range of genres and authors there but this one strikes him as not really fitting in.

“James Joyce?” He climbs onto the bed beside her and thumbs through the thick volume. “Bit heavy going for you, isn’t it? I thought you went in for Jilly Cooper?”

“Oh what? Because I’m a secretary, I must be thick?”

“No, Fi, I didn’t mean - ”

“Just because I didn’t go for Oxford doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to read, you know”

“I’m sorry” He shrugs.

She still looks annoyed.

Laying an apologetic hand on her thigh, he drops the book between them and scoots closer.

“How come you didn’t do A-Levels?” He asks, his hand continuing its lazy path across her legs.

She lies back against the pillows with a sigh and pokes him in the chest with one freshly manicured finger. “cos I was cool, unlike some nerds”

Frowning, it takes him a second to see her lips twitching.

“Cheeky cow” He rolls her underneath him in retaliation and kisses her.

“Go on then, how about it?" She smiles breaking the kiss

Unlike him, she’s completely unruffled, cool and beautiful and only just interested. It’s addictive, being unwanted.

“Give me a minute” He gasps, fumbling to get the condom out of his pocket.

She thrusts the book into his chest with a roll of her eyes.

“I mean this. A challenge for you”

“Fuck off!”

Fiona raises perfect eyebrows. “Scared?”

He thinks about it. He’s got enough reading to get through without **adding** to the pile, and the enormous book looks like heavy reading, to say the least, what's more, he doesn’t appreciate the cock block.

On the other hand, shirking a reading challenge from a girl who left school at sixteen is practically unthinkable. Besides, the thought strikes him, it would be another opportunity to impress Irwin.

*****

He starts on it that evening when he gets home, without enthusiasm, taking it to bed with him and allowing his thoughts to drift even as his eyes scan the pages.

The weekend sees him curled up with it in an armchair, only putting it down when his father scolds him into doing some chore or other.

*****

“So it’s about this bloke, in Dublin in the twenties,” He tells an indifferent Scripps as they hurry to Hector’s class. “going about his day, collecting letters, buying soap, taking a shit and looking at porn and stuff, but it’s a reworking of the Odyessy”

“Pos, thank God,” Scripps latches on to Pos as he catches them up in the corridor “did you get a chance to practice that song I gave you?”

Dakin ignores the change of subject. “He’s Jewish, too” He adds with a nod to Posner.

Posner squeezes in between them and turns adoring eyes up to Dakin. “Who is?”

“Leopold Bloom”

“Local is he?”

Scripps rolls his eyes –Dakin can’t see him but he knows it, nevertheless.

“The protagonist of Dakin’s novel. He’s reading it to impress Fiona, as if we don’t have enough to read”

Posner peers across Scripps to get a look at the title.

“It’s on my reading list, actually. Good is it?”

“Excellent.”

Scripps may choose to be sardonically unimpressed, but in Posner, at least, Dakin can always be sure of a captive audience.

*****

“It’s got this thread of not belonging,” He tells Irwin, their forearms close enough for Dakin to feel the heat of Irwin’s body radiating across the tabletop, knees occasionally knocking together beneath the desk, much to Irwin’s discomfort and Dakin’s delight. “Never fitting in, of being an outsider”

Irwin’s breath hitches a tiny bit. Irwin doesn’t think he’s notices, Dakin is sure of it.

“What made you start a new book now? Such a big one too.” Irwin realises the innuendo of what he’s said immediately and the blush is spreading over his cheeks and disappearing down his neck before the full force of Dakin’s smirk can even hit him.

Bravely, he stammers on. “I - I would think you had enough to concentrate on. Or am I not giving you enough to do?”

“Oh no, sir.” Dakin purrs “You keep me up half the night most of the time”

Irwin tries for a look of stern disapproval and Dakin grins, delighted with himself.

“It’s very relevant for the exam this” Keeping his eyes on Irwin’s all the time, he traces the title letters with his forefinger as he speaks. “Gives a different slant on The Empire: Ireland, oppression at home. I could use it in a question; tie it in with the monarchy, the civil war, the reformation, the First World War. It all links in. Besides, it shows a broadness of reading, don’t you think? The echoes of the classics and all that”

“Well, I suppose...” Irwin’s eyes flick away to the corner of the room.

Dakin’s eyes follow his, striving to maintain the contact. “Haven’t you read it, sir?”

Irwin licks his lips and nudges his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. “Um, no. Not exactly”

“I see” Dakin nods, smirking like Bloom’s cat.

*****

He drops it triumphantly on the desk the next time he’s in Fiona’s room and sprawls out on the bed

“What did you think?” she asks him.

“Irwin hasn’t read it” He says, pride colouring his voice.

“That’s very interesting,”

He lifts his head and frowns at the sarcasm in her tone.

“But what did _you_ think?”

“It were alright.” He shrugs. Then laughs “I can see why you like it, you dirty bitch”

Fiona smirks and lets him catch her hand and draw her over to him.

“And they say I missed out on an education” She mutters, half under her breath as he kisses her neck.

**Author's Note:**

> The book is, of course, Ulysses, by James Joyce, which I admit I haven't managed to plough through (I cribbed all the info - Irwin would be proud), although writing this has made me want to try again.
> 
> It's pretty long and Joyce made it intentionally difficult to read and to analyse, with the style shifting between prose, script format and streams of consciousness, but Dakin's bright so I figured he could read it in a week. 
> 
> It was originally banned until 1936 because of its detailed depictions of pornography, masturbation, sex and going for a poo.
> 
> The original prompt was: 'Dakin being recommended a book by someone, immediately deciding he hates the book, and as he reads through it he loves it but doesn't want to admit it'... Obviously I went off the prompt a bit but if anyone else wants a bash at it do feel free, I'd love to see what else could be made of it :)


End file.
